Process of Writing Exercise

'The most remarkable thing about John Cheever was his capacity for invention. You could not be with him for fifteen minutes before he would look across the street or the restaurant, spy an interesting face, and the story will begin.' Donaldson, S (2002) John Cheever: A Biography. iUniverse, Inc.

This was my feeling when it came to the exercise (despite not being on the street). Along with the instructions in the beginning of this exercise, I recalled a diary I wrote years ago to help inspire me with the key aspects of the opening sentence that had to involve, seeing, hearing and smelling. The setting I used was based on a community centre I visited in February 2009 where I auditioned for an extra's role in a film. I remembered the air, weather, sound and everything that was in front of me that day. In his works, Cheever used a similar technique in the form of unedited diaries that were published soon after his death.

'The Journals were not initiated with publication in mind. They were the workbooks for his fiction. They were the workbooks for his life.' Dyer, G (2010: vii) The Journals - John Cheever. Vintage.

When writing, I found myself drifting, as my mind always had the habit of playing music to drown out all other sound. Daydreaming is a problem I have, however, I used it to my advantage. This goes back to the reference of Cheever using scraps of himself for his stories.

'I don't work with plots. I work with intuition, apprehension, dreams, concepts.' Kureishi, H (2009) Collected Stories. Vintage.

Writing Exercise

'When the taxi drove away, gone was the smell of fags, rotten food and blazing music. Warmth died and dispersed into the freezing air. Breezes stroked the skin of the passenger ... it was so cold. The man, well, teenager, was tall, burly and had blonde hair and stubble of many warm colours. His clothes - cheap and old. There was no sound, except for birds chirping and distant cars driving, but it was all drowned out by the music of the man's daydreams!'

Metaphor Writing Exercise

Earth - humanity's prison
A relentless obstacle
Challenges endless - 
Booby traps always ripe -

How does one escape -
How does armour protect - 
Death strikes anywhere - 
Even from the inside

Body - a soul's cell
No keys to escape
Emotions agony -
Injuries terror -

A rebel I am -
I am no machine -
But a prisoner - 
In the world of God

the room for truth

Is there a place for the truth in writing?

 'Oddly, Cheever never created a character as talented, intelligent or cultured as himself; these are all smaller people than he seemed to be, but they are scraps of him.'  (Kureishi, H. Cheever Collected Stories 2009: xi)

If you're thinking about fiction, then yes, there could be a place for the truth ... but it depends on what type of truth you're talking about and where it comes from. As Cheever demonstrates, he cannot keep himself away from his stories. In my opinion, it wouldn't be surprising that many other people may have written stories that contains scraps of the author - I for one, in my early works, started off by basing my character's facial appearance on myself. It is quite easily done.

Truth can also inspire the author within their works based on events that they have seen and experienced in their lives. J.R.R. Tolkien is the perfect example. His experiences in World War I and religious views influenced his writing in Lord of the Rings. 'The rhythm of war flows through his writings, but his own interpretation of the themes, symbols, and motifs of war were influenced by his religious views and his interest in fantasy, which ass another layer of meaning and a sense of timelessness to his writing.' (Croft, J. <http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/C/Janet.B.Croft-1/war_and_works_jrrt.htm#Where%20to%20Order> 2004)

Adventures of Writing

How is it I became a writer?

I started writing at fourteen. I don't know exactly why I started writing, except that I became lost in my imagination. You look at humanity day by day and see people wake up, work, eat and sleep in a repetitive cycle until they have served their purpose ... all in the name of progressive growth for our country. Where is the adventure in that? That is what I lust for and that is adventure. I guess that I became a writer to escape from the tyranny of life. My goal is for a successful career in which I decide when I retire, the pace of how much I write, and whether I want to seek out a publisher or risk self-publishing my story.

'Life is a box of chocolates' - Forrest Gump (1994)

That, in my opinion, is what being a writer is like. As a writer, you never know where you're going to be swept off to. Each flavour is an adventure waiting to happen - a door to a mysterious room waiting to be unlocked. You are forever exploring ... and chasing. As a writer, you're chasing a goal that will be very difficult to catch, one that you will never know when you achieve it. Even though that there will be difficult times in chasing this goal, when you do catch it, you will then realise that the chase is what made this career fun.